It was announced over the weekend that Prince Charles has written a Ladybird book on climate change, a basic guide for adult readers to battle against sceptics and climate change deniers. The book will be published later this month as part of the new adult series The Ladybird Expert.In other book news:

New details have emerged now about a new project by Marlon James, the award-winning author of A Brief History of Seven Killings, who is planning a fantasy series of books, with the first title due in 2018. The series, titled Dark Star, is based on African mythology, and inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The first book will be called Black Leopard, Red Wolf.

J. K. Rowling and Joe Wicks came out on top of book sales for 2016 in the UK. The Harry Potter author staked her claim on the market with The Cursed Child play script as well as illustrated editions and more, while Wicks soared to popular heights with his diet plan cookbooks. Both figures enabled book sales to surge to £1.6 billion.

William Peter Blatty, author of the best-selling novel The Exorcist (1971), and writer of the film version in 1974, died last week at the age of 89 from blood cancer.

Svetlana Alexievich, the Nobel prize-winning writer, has, now along with thirty other high-profile literary figures, publicly quit the Russian PEN centre in protest of the treatment of journalist Sergey Parkhomenko, who was barred from Russian PEN. The authors involved in the exodus from the Centre cited lack of freedom of speech and active persecution against writers as reasons for their withdrawal.